Zaselnik
They call us madmen, and maybe they're right... But if carving out a living where the world itself tests you constantly, where one must become tougher than the ice that coats the landscape, and where family and home provide a strength that can best any elements are all madness... Then come, let us face the madness together!
Deep in the northwestern reaches of Stirge, where the snow never melts and the sun disappears for months at a time, the Zaselnik dwell. Originally founded by a cluster of self-appointed exiles seeking the harshest climates in the world so that 'the gods could test their mettle', they returned to the world stage only in the last few hundred years, seeking trade with their mother country. Whatever ideologies they might have had back when they first split from the Vyzhivshiye seem to have mellowed out quite significantly since their reappearance. Their focus is largely on tight-knit familial and communal units, working together to form self-reliant townships throughout the frozen deserts.
"The Zaselnik Look"
The Zaselnik people are always open to welcoming new members into their fold, but unsurprisingly, new blood is rare out in the icy wastes. As a result, the vast majority of them - nearly 90% - are humans of Vyzhiv ancestry, steadily adapted to their new environment. From near constant exposure to the beating sun and its powerful reflection off of clean snow during the bright months of the year, their skin has become significantly darker than their temperate-region cousins, rivaling that of those who dwell in the warmer deserts to the far west. They also frequently display a condition they refer to as becoming 'Snowtouched', wherein patches of their skin fail to properly develop melanin and instead seem to do quite the opposite for unknown reasons, becoming stark white. Aside from being prone to burns in these areas, Snowtouched individuals suffer no other ill effects from their 'disorder', and so generally consider it little more than an inconvenience at worst, and potentially a mark of a noteworthy fate from the gods at best.
Culture
Shared customary codes and values
Very little is more important in Zaselnik culture than hospitality. In their culture, they do not simply build shelters in the otherwise uninhabitable frozen northeast. Between the homes that they build, the food that they catch and grow, and the companionship that they provide, they are the shelter. Should literally anyone find themselves upon a Zaselnik doorstep, be they friend or foe, mortal or demon, mage or mechanic, they will be warmed, fed, and treated as family. Only guests who prove themselves directly unworthy of such treatment through hostile action are permitted to be refused shelter.
Art & Architecture
Though it could be argued that architecture is art to the Zaselnik, it is perhaps fairer to say that the two overlap far more in their case than for most other cultures. Their homes and structures are build from layers of wood and brass and thick, green-tinted glass, much of which serve as ample canvas for a wide array of carvings both ritualistic and purely aesthetic. Settlements are a complicated network of interconnected tunnels, pipes, and domes, with many larger towns even featuring greenhouses and arboretums to provide both food and building materials for future colonizing efforts. In an emergency situation, and particularly during the long, dark winter months, these may also be counted on to supply oxygen to what is otherwise a sealed system.
Given the lack of competition for the land they claim, Zaselnik settlements tend to spread out rather than up. Ice-fishing is a consistent source of food for them, and certain towns also hunt arctic whales what breach into caverns beneath particularly deep ice floes for oil. As such, maintaining the integrity of the ice is paramount, and towering structures seen in other developed parts of the world would simply increase the risk of something finally overcoming the ice's structural integrity, dooming everything in their surroundings to a watery grave and cracking open the seal on every other building in the system.
Common Myths and Legends
велик конструктор: Literally 'The Grand Constructor', also called The One Who Gave Up Sleep, this mysterious figure was an early settler who perfected the art of building pressurized shelters in minimal time, making the current lifestyle of the Zeselnik people possible. Though prolific and highly praised throughout their culture, they eventually disappeared into a snowstorm and were never seen again. Their last mark upon the world was a cluster of shelters, discovered by wayward family who become lost in a blizzard and were near death, only to find exactly enough space for all of them, ready and waiting. They are believed to have Ascended and become a god, though no existing god has yet come forward and claimed to be this mysterious figure in a past life.
Native Spelling
Заселник
Pronunciation
Zah-sel-nehk
Заселник
Pronunciation
Zah-sel-nehk
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